Esperanto Today

The international language Esperanto, intended not to replace existing languages but as a second language for international use, is gaining renewed attention from policy-makers in a world increasingly aware of the rights of minorities and the future of linguistic and cultural diversity.... Several political groupings and non-governmental organizations are pressing to place the international language question on the agendas of the United Nations and European Union.... In July 2013 ESF convened the 6th Nitobe Symposium in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss the growing and problematic role of English language instruction in higher education in non-English-speaking countries... Use of Esperanto on the Internet continues to grow: a search for “Esperanto” on Google gives almost 120 million hits, and thousands of people are learning the language through such websites as lernu.net, which receives around 160,000 visits per month, and the app Duolingo, which has attracted 400,000 new learners in the first twelve months of its operation…

Here are some additional facts about the present state of the International Language Esperanto.

Purpose and origins. The basis of what was to become the International Language Esperanto was published in Warsaw in 1887 by Dr. Lejzer Ludwik Zamenhof. The idea of a planned international language, intended not to replace ethnic languages but to serve as an additional, second language for all people, was not new. However, Zamenhof contributed the crucial insight that such a language must develop through collective use. Accordingly, he restricted his initial proposal to a minimalist grammar, a vocabulary of some 900 words, some samples of poetry and prose, and a persuasive introductory essay. On this slender basis, through the cooperation of its users, Esperanto developed into a full-fledged language with its own worldwide speech community and full linguistic resources. In many of the linguistic ideas behind his language, Zamenhof anticipated the founder of modern linguistics, the structuralist Ferdinand de Saussure (whose brother René de Saussure was a pioneer and active user of Esperanto).

Characteristics. Esperanto is both spoken and written. Its lexicon derives primarily from Western European languages, while its syntax and morphology show strong Slavic influences. Esperanto morphemes are invariant and almost infinitely recombinable, so the language also has much in common with isolating languages like Chinese, while its internal word structure bears affinity with agglutinative languages such as Turkish, Swahili and Japanese.

Development. At first, the language consisted of about 1000 roots, from which ten or twelve thousand words could be formed. It developed rapidly. Large Esperanto dictionaries (e.g. recently published bilingual dictionaries for speakers of Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, and German) now contain some 20,000 roots, from which hundreds of thousands of words can be formed. The language continues to evolve through use in international settings. An Esperanto Academy critiques or ratifies current trends. Over the years, the language has been used for virtually every conceivable purpose, some controversial or problematic: the language has the distinction of having been forbidden, and its users persecuted, by both Stalin and Hitler. The former called it the language of “cosmopolitans” and the latter the language of Jews (Zamenhof, creator of the language, was Jewish). An encyclopedia of the original literature of Esperanto (Sutton, 2008), has detailed entries for over 300 published creative writers in Esperanto. Through use of the language in the home, there are now as many as 1000 native speakers of Esperanto.

Users. The Universal Esperanto Association (UEA), with membership drawn from the most active parts of the Esperanto community, has national affiliates in 71 countries and individual members in many more. An additional 16 countries have Esperanto organizations unaffiliated with UEA. Estimates based on internet use put the number of people with knowledge of the language at well over a million people. There are Esperanto speakers in all parts of the world, including notable concentrations in countries as diverse as China, Japan, Brazil, Iran, Lithuania and Cuba.

Teaching Esperanto. Communicative ability in Esperanto can be rapidly acquired, so it is an ideal introduction to foreign-language study. Within weeks, students can begin to use Esperanto for correspondence, and within months for school trips abroad. Positive effects of prior learning of Esperanto on the study of both first and second languages are widely documented (see http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm, on current work in the U.K.). Despite its potential contribution to the language curriculum, however, Esperanto is rarely included in national education or language policies (one present exception is Hungary, where it can be studied as part of the national language examination system). Most people learn it through self-study, either through textbooks or on the internet – or in some cases through local Esperanto clubs. Textbooks and self-instruction materials for Esperanto exist in over 100 languages: see www.edukado.net.

Research. Many universities include Esperanto in courses on linguistics; a few offer it as a separate subject. Particularly noteworthy is Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, with a certificate program in interlinguistics. Scholarly articles, journals, and books on and in Esperanto appear regularly. The Modern Language Association of America’s Annual Bibliography contains thousands of scholarly publications on all aspects of Esperanto and more are appearing every year.

Official recognition. In 1954 the UNESCO General Conference recognized that the achievements of Esperanto correspond with UNESCO’s aims and ideals, and official relations were established between UNESCO and UEA. Collaboration between the two organizations has since taken numerous forms. In 1977 the UNESCO Director General, Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, gave the opening address at the 62nd World Esperanto Congress: in 1985 the General Conference called on member states and international organizations to promote the teaching of Esperanto in schools and its use in international affairs. UEA also has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the UN’s Department of Public Information, and other international organizations.

Meetings. Over 100 international conferences and meetings are held each year in Esperanto – without translators or interpreters. A list of recent venues for the annual World Congress of Esperanto shows their international character: Yokohama (2007), Rotterdam (2008), Bialystok, Poland (2009), Havana (2010), Copenhagen (2011), Hanoi (2012), Reykjavik (2013), Buenos Aires (2014), Lille, France (2015), Nitra, Slovakia (2016). The 2017 congress will take place in the Republic of Korea. Increasing regional use of Esperanto is reflected in continent-wide congresses, such as the upcoming African Congress in Banda, Tanzania (Dec. 2016), and in such regional events as the joint Indonesia/Australia/New Zealand congress in Bandung, Indonesia (March 2016). There are also many meetings for Esperanto speakers at the national and local levels, which often attract participants from other countries.

Correspondence and travel. Each year, millions of letters and messages are written in the language and tens of thousands of Esperanto speakers travel abroad to meetings, while many more use Esperanto for private travel. Pasporta Servo, a hosting service run by UEA’s youth section, contains the addresses of over 1000 Esperanto speakers in 90 countries who provide free overnight accommodation in their own homes to Esperanto-speaking travelers.

Professional contacts. Professional organizations for Esperanto speakers include associations for doctors and medical workers, writers, railway workers, scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, and musicians. Such organizations often publish their own journals, have extensive websites, hold conferences, and help to expand the language for professional and specialized use. The International Academy of Sciences of San Marino, which teaches in Esperanto, has established its own system of courses and diplomas. There is a steady flow of original and translated publications in such fields as astronomy, computing, botany, economics, entomology, medicine, law and philosophy. The Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems brings linguists and social scientists together around the study of communication across languages and organizes an annual conference on Esperanto studies. Its journal Language Problems and Language Planning includes a section on interlinguistics, the study of the conditions for planned international language.

Special interests. Among Esperanto organizations for special-interest groups are those for Scouts, the blind, cyclists, athletes, and vegetarians. The organization for Esperanto youth, TEJO, holds frequent international meetings and publishes its own periodical. Buddhists, Shintoists, Catholics, Quakers, Protestants, Mormons and Baha’i have their own organizations, as do atheists and freethinkers. Numerous social activist groups use the language in their international contacts and other activities. In 2007, a group of Chinese, Japanese and Korean Esperantists published a joint history of their three countries, aimed at finding common ground among the competing views presented in their respective interpretations of national history.

Literature. Esperanto’s flourishing literary life has been recognized by PEN International, which includes an Esperanto affiliate. Present-day writers in Esperanto include the novelists Trevor Steele (Australia), Istvan Nemere (Hungary) and Spomenka Stimec (Croatia), poets Baldur Ragnarsson (Iceland), Mao Zifu (China) and Abel Montagut (Catalonia), and essayists and translators Probal Dasgupta (India), Li Shijun (China) and Carlo Minnaja (Italy). Before his recent death, the poet William Auld was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Literary journals in Esperanto include Beletra Almanako (USA) and Literatura Foiro (Switzerland). Monato is a monthly news magazine.

Translation out of Esperanto. Less common are translations out of Esperanto. Maskerado, a memoir published in Esperanto in 1965 by Tivadar Soros, father of the financier George Soros, detailing the survival of his family during the Nazi occupation of Budapest, appeared in English translation in Britain (2000) and the United States (2001). It has been published also in Russian, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Czech, Hungarian and Turkish translations. La Danĝera Lingvo, a study of the persecution of Esperanto speakers under Hitler and Stalin written in Esperanto by the German historian Ulrich Lins, will be published in English translation in November 2016.

Theatre and Cinema. Plays by dramatists as diverse as Goldoni, Brecht, Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn have been performed in recent years in Esperanto. Many of the plays of Shakespeare exist in Esperanto translation: Hamlet was the first to be translated and performed, and Shakespeare performances include a production of King Lear in Hanoi, Vietnam. Although Chaplin’s The Great Dictator used Esperanto-language signs, feature-length films with dialogue in Esperanto are less common. A notable exception is William Shatner’s cult film Incubus, whose dialogue is entirely in Esperanto.

Music. Well-established musical genres in Esperanto run the gamut from popular and folk songs through rock music, cabaret, solo and choir pieces, and opera. In addition to these strong grassroots traditions, popular composers and performers in a number of countries have recorded in Esperanto, written scores inspired by the language, or used it in their promotional materials, including Elvis Costello and Michael Jackson. There are several orchestra and chorus pieces that include Esperanto, most notably Lou Harrison’s La Koro-Sutro and Symphony No. 1 (the “Esperanto”), by David Gaines, both of the USA. Numerous examples of music in Esperanto can be found online, including several sites devoted to Esperanto karaoke.

Libraries. The Esperanto Association of Britain’s library has more than 20,000 items. Other large libraries include the International Esperanto Museum in Vienna (a section of the National Library of Austria), the Hodler Library at the Universal Esperanto Association’s headquarters in Rotterdam, and the Esperanto collection in Aalen, Germany. The Vienna and Aalen collections can be consulted through the Internet and the international lending system.

Periodicals. More than a hundred magazines and journals are published regularly in Esperanto, including UEA’s monthly journal Esperanto and the youth magazine Kontakto. Electronic journals include Libera Folio, a principal source of information and opinion on the Esperanto movement itself. Among other periodicals are scholarly publications in medicine and science, religious magazines, national Esperanto journals, and numerous special-interest publications.

Radio and television. Radio stations, both free-air and internet, in Brazil, China, Cuba, Korea, Poland, and many other countries broadcast regularly in Esperanto, as does Vatican Radio. Television stations broadcast occasional reports in or on Esperanto, including the local television station in Bialystok, Poland, birthplace of the Creator of Esperanto, Zamenhof.

Internet. Electronic networks are the fastest-growing means of communication among Esperanto speakers. There are hundreds of special-interest lists in Esperanto, for discussion of topics ranging from the family use of the language to the general theory of relativity. The number of websites in Esperanto is unknown, but certainly runs to several thousand, and there are thousands of YouTube videos.

UEA services. The Universal Esperanto Association publishes books, magazines, and a yearbook listing Esperanto organizations and local representatives around the world. These publications, along with information on records, cassettes, etc., are listed in UEA’s book catalogue, available on the web. The UEA’s Book Service has more than 3500 titles in stock.